Whatever the cause, these irregularities may undoubtedly occur; and if they be proved to be largely independent of crossing and conditions, this will in nowise vitiate the truth of the Mendelian principle. For in that case it may simply be variability. Such true variation, or sporting, in the pea is referred to by many observers. Upon this subject I have received most valuable facts from Mr Arthur Sutton, who has very kindly interested himself in these inquiries. He tells me that several highly bred varieties, selected with every possible care, commonly throw a small but constant proportion of poor and almost vetch-like plants, with short pods and small round seeds, which are hoed out by experienced men each year before ripening. Other high-class varieties always, wherever grown, and when far from other sorts, produce a small percentage of some one or more definite “sports.” Of these peculiar sports he has sent me a collection of twelve, taken from as many standard varieties, each “sport” being represented by eight seeds, which though quite distinct from the type agree with each other in almost all cases. In two cases, he tells me, these seed-sports sown separately have been found to give plants identical with the standard type and must therefore be regarded as sports in _seed characters_ only; in other cases change of plant-type is associated with the change of seed-type. In most standard varieties these definite sports are not very common, but in a few they are common enough to require continual removal by selection[69]. [69] It is interesting to see that in at least one case the same--or practically the same--variety has been independently produced by different raisers, as we now perceive, by the fortuitous combination of similar allelomorphs. _Sutton’s Ringleader_ and _Carter’s First Crop_ (and two others) are cases in point, and it is peculiarly instructive to see that in the discussion of these varieties when they were new, one of the points indicating their identity was taken to be the fact that they produced _the same “rogues.”_ See _Gard. Chron._ 1865, pp. 482 and 603; 1866, p. 221; 1867, pp. 546 and 712. Rimpau quotes Blomeyer (_Kultur der Landw. Nutzpflanzen_, Leipzig, 1889, pp. 357 and 380) to the effect that _purple_-flowered plants with _wrinkled_ seeds may spring as direct sports from peas with _white_ flowers and _round_ seeds. I have not seen a copy of Blomeyer’s work. Probably this “wrinkling” was “indentation.” I hope before long to be able to give statistical details and experiments relating to this extraordinarily interesting subject. As de Vries writes in his fine work _Die Mutationstheorie_ (I. p. 580), “a study of the seed-differences of inconstant, or as they are called, ‘still’ unfixed varieties, is a perfect treasure-house of new discoveries.”